


spaceboy (on hold)

by All_Hail_Queen_Freddie



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blind AU, F/M, Fluff, Harley is Tony’s Son, Irondad, M/M, Mild Angst, Morgan is six, No Endgame, No Infinity War, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter is blind, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony adopted Harley, and his sister, harley moves to new york, no powers au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2020-03-20 17:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 13,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18997309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/All_Hail_Queen_Freddie/pseuds/All_Hail_Queen_Freddie
Summary: peter parker likes space even though he can’t see itharley keener likes peter even though peter can’t see him





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> big thanks to the spiderlad discord server for giving me this idea and letting me run with it

“Friday, wake Harley.”

“Yes, boss. Which protocol should I use?”

“Farmboy protocol.”

“Of course, boss.”

About three minutes later, Harley trudged down the steps into the kitchen where Tony was drinking his coffee.

“How many times this month are you gonna wake me up with a fucking rooster?” he slurred.

“First of all, language.” Harley rolled his eyes. “And I’ll keep waking you up with a rooster until you get up in time for school.”

“Okay, but why a rooster?”

“You’re from Tennessee, Harley. It was that or the noise of a tractor starting.”

Harley shook his head and laughed.

“I might be classified as a bad parent, or bad adoptive parent, for doing this, but do you want some coffee?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna need it. First days suck. Especially three months into the school year.” He walked over to the counter and poured himself a full cup of coffee.

Tony looked up. “I feel like that was a bit of a dig, but I’m gonna let it slide because you’re the one who didn’t tell me you’re basically a genius.”

“Okay, that’s not _really my fault_. No one told me I had straight 100’s in all my classes.”

“Well, regardless, I think Midtown’s the best choice for you.”

“Yeah. I don’t really have a problem with it. It’s just that I already had a hard enough time at Redwood, but going to a science school when your adoptive dad is Iron Man? I’m either about to be super popular or hated by everyone.”

“You know, if anyone gives you any trouble, just shoot me a text and I’ll be right down to kick their asses.”

“You have a company to run. I’m not gonna do that.”

“Actually, it’s Pep’s company. I’m just the founder.”

Harley smiled and ate a granola bar he grabbed from the pantry as he walked back up the stairs.

“Hey, kid, you should really eat more than that.”

“Nah, I’m good. Not that hungry.”

Tony just shook his head and looked down at his phone. “Friday?”

“Yes, boss?”

“Wake me up early enough tomorrow so that I can make Harley breakfast.”

“You got it.”

Two feet came thumping down the steps and a little eleven-year-old ran into the room. “Tony! Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony!”

“Hey, Abbie, what’s up?”

“I can’t find Pepper, so please tell me you know something about fashion.”

“I mean, not a lot, but I know how to coordinate colours.”

She stood there and thought about it for a moment before saying, “Good enough. Should I wear this shirt with these pants or my black skirt?”

“Hmm, that’s a tough one.” He pretended to contemplate both options for what was apparently way too long in Abbie’s mind.

“Tony,” she whined. “I really need your help.”

“Okay, what about the pink shirt with those pants?”

“I hadn’t thought of that. You’re a genius!” she yelled as she ran back upstairs.

Tony laughed to himself and put his now empty coffee mug in the sink. He walked up the stairs to the floor that the kids all had to themselves and promptly ran into a large pile of Legos. “Morgan?” he called, picking up tiny blocks as he walked toward his daughter’s room. “I thought we talked about this. We have to clean up our toys after we’re done playing with them.”

Morgan peeked her head out from behind her door and then quickly ran out of her room and into their shared living space.

Tony sighed and chased her around the couch until she ran into Harley’s room. Harley was still in his pajamas when he walked out, holding Morgan in one arm and his backpack in the other. “Tony, I think you lost a kid.”

He rolled his eyes. “And I think you should be dressed by now.”

Harley handed Morgan to Tony and threw his bag down on the couch. “I was thinking I’d just wear this.”

“Over my dead body.”

He groaned. “Fine! But now I’m going to be late, and it’s your fault.”

“Uh huh, okay.” Tony turned to Morgan, who was grinning as wide as she possibly could. “Now to handle you, little rascal.”

“Mommy says you’re the troublemaker out of the two of us,” she quipped.

Tony raised his eyebrows. “Mommy said that? Well, Mommy’s a bit of a troublemaker too.”

“Really?”

“Yup, and so are you. And troublemakers still have to clean up their messes, even if they don’t want to.”

Morgan huffed and pouted.

“No, no, no. Don’t give me the sad face. It’s very cute, but it’s not going to get you anywhere.”

“I’ll clean up my toys if you get me a juice pop.”

“Oh, it appears we have a little negotiator here. I’ll tell you what. You clean up your toys and I’ll put an extra cookie in your lunch today.”

Morgan smiles and held out her hand for Tony to shake. “Deal.”

“Tony!” Harley shouted.

He sighed and set Morgan down on the carpet. “Yes?” When no one responded, he walked into Harley’s room. He frequently forgot how dark Harley kept his room. It was like a vampire lived there. He had requested to paint his walls black as soon as he and his sister moved into Avengers Headquarters because he claimed he was ‘edgy’. “Kid, what’s going on?”

“Have you seen my blue converse?”

“That’s it? Shoes? I thought something was actually wrong.”

“Tony,” Harley deadpanned. “They’re my best sneakers.”

“Harley,” Tony mocked him. “They’re a pair of shoes. I think you can live without them for a day.”

He groaned again. “No, you don’t understand. If I’m not wearing my best sneakers, then my feet hurt. Those shoes are broken in just enough, the _perfect_ amount, cause my feet are fucking long and nothing else fits right. Plus, they’re blue.”

“Oh my god, teenager problems,” Tony muttered as he rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m giving you exactly five minutes to find them and then it’s time to go, shoes or no shoes.”

And sure enough, exactly five minutes later, Harley stumbled back down the stairs and to the elevator that led to the parking garage while still trying to put his shoes on.

“You wanna drive today, kid?” Tony asked, tossing the keys to the 17-year-old.

“Really? I can?”

“Yeah, just keep it on autopilot until you get the girls to school.”

He laughed once. _Of course_. “Thanks, Tony. See you after school.”

“Have fun! Don’t do drugs!” A couple seconds later, Abbie and Morgan walked through and both hugged Tony before leaving.

Morgan shouted, “Bye, Dad! Love you!” followed by Abbie’s “Bye, Tony!”

When Pepper walked in right after that, Tony let out another sigh. “You just missed ‘em.”

“You look exhausted.”

“I am. I’m gonna go back to bed now that you’re up.”

Pepper chuckled. “Rest up, Iron Dad. You’re gonna need it.”


	2. two

“Morgan, wait! You forgot your lunch!”

The little six-year-old sprinted back to the car and grabbed her lunch bag. “Thanks, Harley.”

He smiled and switched the autopilot button off before driving away. As he pulled up to Midtown and saw the crowd of people in the front, his nerves started to get the best of him. “It’s fine. You’re fine. These people don’t know yet. They won’t smother you with questions. No one’s going to attack you. You’re fine,” he mumbled to himself to try and calm down.

Harley pulled the keys from the ignition, grabbed his backpack, and exited the car, locking it on his way through the parking lot. He had parked as far from the school as he could so that he could avoid the inevitable “Dude, where’d you get your car?” for as long as possible.

That was definitely one of the downsides to being adopted by Tony Stark. Pretty much everything he owned was expensive, including his car. He liked having high quality clothes that didn’t fall apart after wearing them once or twice, but he definitely didn’t like the attention he got for it.

His phone chimed, reminding him to turn his ringer off and notifying him of a text. That was also something new. People never texted him before he moved to New York. Before everything happened. Now he was getting texts once an hour from Tony motherfucking Stark.

 

**Tony**  
Hey kid, can you call me?

 

So of course, he sighed and dialed Tony’s number. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Just wanted to make sure that you were okay. And that you got the girls to school.”

“Yeah, yeah they’re fine. I’m fine.”

“Really? Cause Friday’s telling me you almost had an anxiety attack. Wanna tell me what happened?”

Harley glared at the Stark watch on his wrist. “Traitor.”

“There’s just a lot of people here. Lots of people who are gonna ask about the car. Lots of people that probably already know.”

He heard Tony sigh on the other end. “Yeah, I’m sorry, kid. I tried to keep it out of the press as much as possible. If you want, I can homeschool you? I’m sure Pepper would be on board with it.”

“Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“Remember what I told you. Anyone gives you trouble, you text me. Or call me, whatever you want. And you remember what to do for emergencies, right?”

“Yup, button on the right side of the watch.”

“Alright, good. Have a good day at school, kid.”

“Thanks. Now stop stressing. Have lunch with Pepper or something.”

He hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. When he stepped inside the school, he immediately wanted to turn around and leave. There were just too many people. As if they could sense his discomfort, two teenagers, one girl, one guy, walked up to him and fell into step next to him. The girl spoke up first. “What’s your name?”

“Uh, H-Harley?” He was so confused.

“I’m MJ, that’s Ned. You looked nervous, and people won’t talk to you if you’re hanging out with the school weirdos.”

“And I’m guessing you’re--”

“We’re the weirdos, yes.”

“Thank you?”

“You’re welcome.”

They walked through the hallway until they reached the other side of the school. “Where are we going?”

“We have to go help our friend.”

Ned finally spoke up. “You can come if you want. But we won’t make you.”

“Sure, I’ll go with you. What does your friend need help with?”

“Pretty much everything,” MJ laughed.

_What?_

They walked outside right as a car pulled up to the building. One of the doors opened and out stepped a boy wearing dark sunglasses. MJ and Ned both stepped toward him. Ned held his arm out stiffly, sort of like a handrail, and the boy grabbed on. MJ walked next to them up the steps and started to talk to him.

“Hey, asshat.”

The boy laughed. “Hi, MJ. Hey, Ned.”

“Dude, did you get new sunglasses?” Ned asked.

“Yeah, actually. May and I went shopping this weekend and she found me these.”

Harley felt awkward. He wasn’t sure if he should introduce himself or what. I mean, this guy didn’t really seem to want to acknowledge him. So he stayed quiet.

“So there’s a new kid today.”

“Really? I’m assuming you’re telling me this because they’re standing right in front of me,” the boy said right as they reached the top of the steps.

“Yeah. His name is Harley.”

The boy held his hand out. “I’m Peter.”

Harley shook his hand. “I like the, uh, your sunglasses.” 

“Thanks.” Peter smiled and Harley melted a little bit. “I’d offer to give you a tour of the school, but that would definitely be a disaster.”

Harley still had no idea what was happening. “Oh, uh, don’t worry about it.”

Peter tilted his head to the side and then turned to his friends. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”

MJ had a wicked grin on her face. “Nope. Wanted to see how long it would take him. From the look on his face, I’d say he still doesn’t know.”

“What do I not know?”

They all burst out laughing except for Harley.

“Can someone please explain what’s happening?”

Peter turned back to him and smiled again. “I’m blind.”

Way too many thoughts went through Harley’s head at once. It all made sense, of course. But now Harley just had so many questions for him. “I, um, I really don’t want to be rude, and I’m sure you get this all the time, but how did it happen?”

“I was born this way, actually. My mom would tell me when I was little that I was ‘made different’ or some bullshit, but now I know it was just because I was an underdeveloped fetus. My eyes weren’t developed enough when my mom had me, so now I’m blind.”

He answered so quickly and so smooth, which made it very clear to Harley that he got this question at least once a day. “Oh, I’m sorry.” He couldn’t stop stumbling over his words, and he hated it.

“It’s fine. I’ve been handling it for sixteen years.”

Harley nodded slowly.

“You’re uncomfortable now, aren’t you? I mean, I can’t see you”

“No, I just can’t imagine not being able to see.” He backtracked, “I mean, it just has to be frustrating sometimes.”

Peter shrugged. “Occasionally, yeah. But technically I’m not completely blind.”

MJ rolled her eyes. “You always say that, but I bet you couldn’t make out where Harley is if you had your sunglasses off.”

“Yeah, you’ve got a point.”


	3. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> extra long chapter
> 
> thanks for waiting guys

“Tony? Pepper? We’re home!”

As soon as Harley set her down, Morgan went running through the kitchen to her parents’ room. Abbie went to the fridge to start making herself dinner. She sort of hated the healthy food that Pepper always made them eat. Harley jogged upstairs to try and find at least one of the parental figures in the building. Instead, he found absolutely nothing.

He shouted back down the stairs, “Abbie, watch Morgan for a sec!”

“Kay!”

Harley walked into his room and into his personal elevator that took him to his lab. Tony had insisted he have his own space, as he knew Harley was a very private person. Up in his lab, there was a door leading out to the other labs in the building that only he and Tony could use, otherwise Friday’s alarms would go off. He made his way through all the rooms, searching for Tony, or Pepper, but she was rarely on the lab floor.

“Anyone up here?” he called. “Friday, where’s Tony?”

“Boss is on the fifth floor in the training room.”

“Who else is home?”

“Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barnes are also in the training room.”

“Where’s Pepper?”

“Ms. Potts is in a meeting in Paris.”

“Can you watch Abbie and Morgan for me and tell me if anything happens?”

“Of course, Mini Boss.”

He chuckled. “Thanks, Friday.”

Harley walked through the hallway until he reached the elevator up to the fifth floor. _Damn Tony and his intricate and weird building design._ Even before the elevator doors opened, he could hear the telltale sounds of Steve and Bucky training together. But he couldn’t hear Tony.

As he walked in, he saw Bucky land a backflip onto Steve’s shield that knocked him to the floor. When they saw Harley, they stopped.

“Hey, kid,” Bucky waved. “Stark’s in the weapons room.”

Steve waved as well and gave him a soft smile.

Harley furrowed his eyebrows. “Friday said he was in here with you guys.”

“Yeah, he just left. Got tired cause he’s an old man now.”

He scoffed. “That’s rich coming from you two.”

Bucky placed his hand over his chest and mocked offence. “How dare you?” Then he turned to Steve and said, “The balls on this kid.”

“Whatever. Hey, let me know what you guys want for dinner tonight, cause I’m cooking,” he said as he opened the door to the weapons room.

“Promise not to burn anything this time?”

“Yeah, I’ll actually follow a recipe or something.”

They laughed and he closed the door behind him. No matter how many times Harley had been in the weapons room, he never ceased to be amazed by everything in there. There were new prototypes, old equipment, lots of things he wasn’t allowed to touch because, let’s face it, he’s kind of a disaster.

He weaved in and out of the messy room. It was clear that Tony had been spending a lot of time in there. He rounded a corner and found Tony sitting on the floor with a giant box open next to him. He was holding the newest version of Steve’s supersuit and had a hologram blueprint of it hovering in front of him.

“Hey, Tony.”

That startled him and he jumped a little. “Jesus, Harley. You’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days.”

Harley let out a small laugh and sat down next to him.

“How was your first day at Midtown?”

“Not too bad. Made some friends.”

“Already! Wow!”

“Hey, don’t act so surprised. I’m likeable.”

“Yeah, but you don’t like people.” Harley nodded in agreement. “So tell me about these friends. They’ve got to be pretty cool for you to consider them friends.”

“Um, there’s a girl, MJ. She’s weird and funny, but not on purpose. And she’s almost as tall as me. And then there’s Ned. He’s a lot shorter and he’s like super nerdy. He really loves Star Wars, and he’s kind of quiet. And then there’s Peter.”

Tony looked up when he heard the change in Harley’s voice. “Oh? Tell me about him.”

“He, uh, he also likes Star Wars. And he’s shorter too, but not as short as Ned. He’s got this kind of curly brown hair, and he really really likes the colour blue. And he’s blind.”

“Hm.”

“What?”

“You like him.”

Harley’s face went red. “No I don’t! I just met him today!”

“Right, of course. Because infatuation at first sight isn’t real.”

“Tony! I’m serious!”

“So then why did you tell me about his hair and his favourite colour? Cause you didn’t say anything about that with Ned and MJ.”

“I don’t know,” he mumbled, looking down at the floor.

“I think you do know.”

“Ugh, fine! I like him! But it’s just a stupid crush. And there’s no way he would like me back, cause first of all, he’s so pretty and he could get anyone he wants. And second, he can’t even see me, so even if he was attracted to me, it would have to be because of my shitty personality.”

“Language.”

“Sorry.”

“And stop putting yourself down. You deserve a lot better than the hand you’ve been dealt. So let yourself have a crush. There’s no harm in it. And I’m willing to bet you money that he’ll like you back if he doesn’t already.”

“I doubt it, but thanks.”

“If you want, I can cook dinner tonight since Pep isn’t here. I promise I won’t make you eat too much healthy food.”

“Nah, that’s okay. I already told the popsicles out there that I’m cooking.”

Tony laughed. “Popsicles. Nice. You’re already taking after me, kid.”

“It’s like I was born to be a Stark.”

And Tony couldn’t help how his heart swelled when he heard that. When he adopted Harley and Abbie, he had hoped they wouldn’t resent him and want to go back to their mom, but he was never really sure. Harley was always pretty hard to read, though his voice gave away everything, and Abbie was almost a teenager, so her moods changed constantly. But this meant so much.

“I’m gonna go take orders from the popsicles and then get dinner started. Is there anything you want specifically?”

“As long as it isn’t burnt, I’m good with whatever.”

“Oh my god, that was one time! Why does everyone always throw that in my face?”

“Maybe because it was eggs. You burned eggs, one of the easiest things to cook.”

“But I learned from that, and now I can make them without burning them.”

“Just go make dinner.” He smiled as Harley left and then called for Friday. “Hey, Fri? Show me what Abbie and Morgan are up to.”

“Sure thing, Boss.”

A hologram of Friday’s camera feed of the kids’ living area popped up against the wall, and his smile grew wider when he saw that Morgan was sitting on the couch reading with Abbie.

Once Harley had finished making dinner and had set the table, everyone who lived in the building had either come home or just came downstairs to eat. And boy was it a full table. Harley of course sat next to Tony, Abbie, and Morgan, but there were many other people sitting around them. Steve and Bucky sat next to each other on the other side of the table, with Natasha, Sam, and Rhodey in a row beside them. Wanda sat next to Abbie, with Vision and Pietro sitting at the two corners at the end of the table. Thor sat right next to Sam, who had weirdly enough become one of his best friends over the last few weeks, and Loki next to _him_ finished the lineup. The only spot that was empty was Pepper’s. To most people, it would be kind of sad, but it was just part of her job. Taking trips every once in a while to conferences and meetings was kind of required of a CEO.

“So, Harley, how was your first day of school?” Natasha asked right before she ate a mouthful of pasta that was surprisingly good considering Harley made it.

“It was good.”

“Harley met a boy.”

His head whipped around to see Tony smirking as he got some more food on his fork. “Wow. Really?”

Everyone at the table was suddenly extremely interested. Sam raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Oh my god. Tony, why?”

Tony ignored him and told the entire table everything Harley had said to him. “His name is Peter, he likes the colour blue, he likes Star Wars, he has curly brown hair, he’s blind, and Harley’s in love with him.”

“Come on, old man! What have I ever done to you?”

“Uh, you just called me ‘old man’. That’s a no-no.”

Morgan was giggling like crazy.

Steve spoke up. “So how did you meet this boy?”

Harley sighed loudly and slumped down in his chair. “I met him right before school started. I had just met two other people and they’re his friends.”

“I have a little tip for you,” Natasha said after taking a sip of water. “Try not to baby him. Clint’s deaf, you know, and he hates it when people act like he can’t do anything. So just be careful about that. I’m sure he’s perfectly independent and likes it that way.”

“Thanks, Nat.”

Bucky set his fork down and pulled his hair up into a bun as he talked. “If you ever want tips on how to flirt with guys, talk to me or Steve.” After a second, he amended that. “Actually, just talk to me. Stevie can’t flirt to save his life.”

“Hey!”

“Oh, come on, you know I’m right.”


	4. four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took a while but i'm back on my game again I think

_At least lunch is the same_ , Harley thought on his second day of school. MJ, Ned, and Peter had offered for him to sit with them, which was apparently a big deal. People gave them strange looks, not just because they were the weird nerds.

Harley liked to people-watch, and he noticed so many similarities between Midtown and Redwood, and even his old school in Tennessee. There was a clear popular group filled with cheerleaders and football players, which didn’t seem quite right for a science and tech school, but Harley let it slide. He’d seen weirder things. After all, he did live with the fucking Avengers.

The table right next to theirs was filled with the gamers, the only people that really tolerated Peter and his friends. Unfortunately they were extremely loud. Across the lunchroom was the rest of the nerds. There were multiple tables full of them as it was basically a nerd school.

“I’m still convinced this is just blended plastic,” MJ said, picking at the glob of ‘mashed potatoes’ on her lunch tray.

“And how would you know what blended plastic tastes like?”

“I don’t. But I really don’t want to find out.”

“Peter, will you please tell MJ she has to at least eat a little? She only listens to you.”

Peter sighed. Harley looked over to see him picking at his own food. “MJ, eat your food,” he said monotonously.

Harley frowned when he noticed that Peter still hadn’t done the same. “Pete, why aren’t you eating?”

“Because, in approximately one minute, Flash will come over to our table.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“You’ll see.”

True to what Peter had said, Flash walked up to them, knocked Peter’s tray off the table, and shouted, “Freak!”

When Peter responded with a deep sigh, Flash decided to come back.

“What’d you say, Freak?”

“Nothing, Flash.”

Harley stared daggers into the back of his Flash’s head as he leaned down to Peter’s eye level.

“Why don’t you look me in the eyes? Huh, Freak? Without the sunglasses.”

“Hey, Flash, why don’t you cut it out?”

Everyone turned to Harley.

“What did you just say to me?”

“I said, cut it out, asshole.”

Harley couldn’t see Peter’s eyes, but the rest of his face was telling enough. He was scared. This hadn’t happened before.

Flash had walked around Peter and was sizing Harley up. “Listen, I’m not sure you get how it works around here. You’re new. I’ll let it slide just this once.”

Chair scraping across the floor, Harley stood up and towered over Flash. “You’re right. I don’t get how it works around here, but I’m sure as shit not gonna let you pick on him.”

“Harley, just leave it,” Peter pleaded.

“Shut up, Freak.”

“Hey!” Harley yelled. “Would you fucking stop?”

“Why don’t you make me? This is _my_ school. So shut up before I kick your ass.”

Harley took a step forward and Peter stood up in between the two boys. He faced Harley. “Please, stop.”

The expression on Harley’s face softened a bit and he stepped back. “Okay.”

“Oh, Freak’s got himself a little bitch now.”

Harley did his best to ignore Flash. He closed his eyes and huffed in frustration.

“Freak and Bitch, the perfect couple.”

_That’s it._

Harley raised his fist, and it was en route to Flash’s nose, but something stopped it. Peter. Despite literally not being able to see, Peter grabbed his fist and stopped him from, in all honesty, probably getting suspended. On his second day of school.

Flash was frozen in place. No one had ever actually fought back when he insulted them. Students all around them stared at the scene. Normally Harley would want to curl up into a ball and die from all the attention, but the only person he focused on was Peter.

He had a really strong urge to lift the sunglasses off of Peter’s face and look into his eyes, but he didn’t. Partly because he knew Peter wore the sunglasses for a reason, and partly because Peter still held his fist in the air.

Flash backed up a little, so there was enough space between him and Harley that he could probably insult him again without the other fist going for his face instead. “See you tomorrow, Freak. Maybe next time you won’t have Bitch over here to fight your battles for you.”

Harley’s nostrils flared like a bull, and anger came rushing back through his blood stream. He was about to lunge at Flash, who was walking away, when his watch started beeping like crazy. Peter finally let go of his fist and he checked the notification. Tony was trying to call him. He sent him straight to voicemail and turned back to Peter.

“Sorry I didn’t stop when you told me to. I just… Is he always like that?”

“Pretty much, yeah. Thanks for standing up for me, but he’s not gonna stop just because of one person.”

His watch started beeping again. “Hold on just a second.” He stepped away from the table and leaned against a nearby wall. “Hey, Tony.”

“Harley, what the hell! Why’d you send me to voicemail?”

“Yeah, uh, sorry about that. This guy was picking on one of my friends and I kinda lost it.”

“Is everything okay?”

Harley nodded before realising that Tony couldn’t see that. “Everything’s fine. I didn’t actually hit him, but I came pretty close. So, um, why did you call me?”

“Well, I know you’re already like halfway through your lunch period, but I thought I could pick you up and we could eat lunch together. If that won’t embarrass you. And you could even bring your friends if you want?”

He looked back at the table and saw MJ throwing food at Ned and Peter laughing. “Actually, that sounds great. I’ll see if they wanna come. Just don’t embarrass me, okay?”

“I’ll try my best. Are you gonna bring that kid you have a crush on?”

Harley turned beet red. “Maybe.”

“I’m gonna embarrass you a little bit.”

“Tony!”


	5. five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took a while

“Okay, so before you guys get in the car, I think I should probably prepare you. My dad is Tony Stark.”

Everyone’s jaw dropped.

“Well, he’s my adoptive dad. It’s kind of complicated, but basically, he stepped in when my parents couldn’t take care of me anymore.”

MJ was the quickest to recover. “Sorry about your parents.”

“Nah, it’s no big deal. They never really took care of me in the first place. They were just kind of there.”

Just a few seconds later, an extremely expensive-looking silver car rolled up and slowed to a stop in front of them. The passenger side’s window slid down, and none other than Tony Stark leaned down to look at the four teenagers.

“Hey, kids!”

“Shotgun!” MJ opened the front passenger door and hopped in. The three boys sighed and climbed into the back seat together, Ned helping Peter in so he didn’t fall on his face. Harley was squished between the two of them, which he would normally object to because he hated small spaces, but he was sitting next to Peter, so there was definitely an upside.

“No Happy today?” he asked when the doors were all closed.

Tony shook his head. “I gave him the day off. Well, Pep did. So introduce me to your friends.”

“Up front is MJ. To my left is Peter and to my right is Ned.”

“Oh, I’ve heard a lot about you guys.” Harley’s face went red. “Cool sunglasses, Peter.”

Peter froze. “Uh, th-thanks.”

“So what do you guys want to eat?”

MJ almost immediately answered. “I could go for some Italian food.” Then she remembered who she was talking to. “I mean, if that’s alright.”

Tony thought that over for a moment and then nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. What do you guys think?”

The boys all voiced their agreement.

“So, Ned, I’ve heard you’re a big fan of Star Wars.” _Tony, please stop talking._ “Which movie is your favourite?”

Ned’s mind was running wild. Tony Stark had just asked him a question. About his life. “Uh, um, I, probably E-Empire Strikes Back.”

Tony smiled. “Good choice. Peter, what about you?”

“Well, uh, I’d probably say Empire Strikes Back, too, since that’s the one Ned watches and I hear all the time. It sounds good, if that makes sense.”

“Yeah, I understand that. Have you ever listened to it with the commentary?”

“No.”

“Good. It adds absolutely nothing to the experience, I promise. It’s just annoying.”

Peter chuckled a bit. “Yeah, I tried it once with an old Disney movie, but I had to immediately turn it off. I don’t know why anyone would like that.”

Harley was a bit shocked that Tony was able to relate to something that he’d previously thought was kind of a ‘blind people thing’, but then he immediately felt bad about considering something a ‘blind people thing’.

“And MJ, you prefer books over movies, right?”

“Oh, definitely. There’s very few series’ or franchises that have better movies than books.”

“Really? Like what?”

“Forrest Gump, of course, The Hunger Games,” Harley raised his eyebrows at that one, “and that’s all that automatically comes to mind.”

“You don’t like The Hunger Games books?” Harley asked with wide eyes.

“Well, I’m sure there are good things about them, but I couldn’t even finish the first book. And I never do that. I always finish books whether they’re good or not. But I just about fell asleep within the first two chapters.”

“Wow,” Harley mouthed. “Weird.”

A few minutes later, they pulled up to a pretty fancy and expensive-looking Italian restaurant, one that Harley would have never stepped foot in before Tony adopted him.

As if expecting a reaction from Harley, Tony turned to look at all four of them. “It’s not as extravagant as it looks.”

“Says the multi-billionaire who could probably buy Italy if he wanted.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think Italy’s a bit out of my price range, but I could probably manage Belgium,” Tony responded with a grin.

Harley just rolled his eyes.

They all got out of the car and made their way inside the building, all of them but Tony, and Peter of course, looking around in awe of how pretty the interior was. There were extravagant gold chandeliers and glass panels on the wall with side details that looked like lace.

“Oh yeah, this definitely isn’t fancy at all,” Harley whispered to Tony, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

This time Tony rolled his eyes.

When the waiter came over to lead them to their seats, Peter reached over to Harley and held onto his arm instead of Ned’s. Harley’s heart stopped for a second because _wow, Peter’s touching me, oh my god._ MJ noticed and raised her eyebrows at Harley, a smirk playing on her face. But Harley barely noticed it. He was too focused on how close Peter’s hand was to his own.

Peter knew what he was doing. He knew he was holding onto Harley, and a little part of him wanted to shift his hand just slightly to hold Harley’s. There was something about his voice and how nice he was that made Peter’s heart flutter just a little. But they’d only known each other for a couple days, and that was way too soon for him to know if he had real feelings for him. So he settled for this.

They sat down at a six-person table, and the four teenagers were internally screaming the entire time. Tony asked so many questions, and almost every single one of them embarrassed Harley. He even told a few embarrassing stories. And when they got back to school, there were only two hours left of school.

They had apparently timed their reentrance perfectly with the four minute period they had to change classes. So half of the school saw the weirdest kids in school and the new boy get out of a car that had Tony Stark in it. Those last two hours were definitely going to be interesting.


	6. six

Thanksgiving at Avengers Tower was both the craziest and funniest thing Harley had ever experienced. To be completely honest, he's not sure what he expected from this day, but it definitely wasn't what he was seeing.

At 7:00 am, he was accidentally woken up by the sound of a pan crashing to the floor in the kitchen downstairs. How he heard that, he had no idea, but there was pretty much no way he was getting any more sleep that morning. He trudged down the stairs from his floor with Abbie and Morgan, eyes squinting as they adjusted to the huge difference in the light that flooded the lower floor versus the pitch black of his room, grimace evident on his face.

"Okay, whoever dropped that pan is about to die," he threatened loud enough for anyone in the room to hear.

"That was Thor's fault."

Harley opened his eyes just enough to see Thor and Loki standing by the oven. He just exhaled loudly and walked over to the elevator. He decided it was useless to try and grab some breakfast with two gods running the kitchen, so he opted to use Tony and Pepper's kitchen. As he took the elevator up to one of the top floors, he realised he'd left his phone back in his room. He mentally scolded himself and frowned.

"Hey, Fri?"

"Yes, Mini Boss?"

"Can you check my notifications?"

"Yes, Mini Boss. You have three messages from MJ and an email from Midtown Tech."

He sighed heavily. "Just ignore them. I'll check them later."

When the elevator doors opened, Harley expected an empty kitchen, or maybe just one or two people milling about, but instead he found pretty much everyone who lived there all in the same room.

Tony was chasing Morgan around while Abbie sat in a corner on the floor, eating a croissant. Pepper sat next to her in a suit reading a magazine and drinking coffee. Wanda rushed around the kitchen, with Vision following her, and Pietro kept disappearing and reappearing to grab ingredients from countertops, pantries, and refrigerators. Bucky and Natasha were throwing flour at each other and yelling in Russian as they attempted to cook something that Harley assumed was bread. Steve and Sam were both trying to stop the flour fight while Rhodes sat at the island in the middle of the kitchen looking like he wanted to rip his hair out.

"What the fuck is going on in here?"

Everyone stopped to chorus, "Language."

"Fine. What is going on in here?"

Tony had managed to catch Morgan by then and said, "They're cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Wanna help?"

Harley took one look at the group of super powered adults, sighed, and joined Wanda as she made a gigantic pot of mashed potatoes. "So forgive me if I'm wrong, but you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, right?"

She nodded. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I offered to cook anyway, mostly so I could eat food I actually like as opposed to the turkey Rhodes is supposed to make later."

Pietro set a bottle of paprika next to the pot on the counter, along with a few other spices, and zipped away again.

A few minutes later, Harley felt a glob of batter of some sort land on his cheek. Abbie started laughing, as did Wanda, and Harley slowly turned to see Bucky looking extremely guilty. He smiled sheepishly as an apology, but Harley wasn't having it. He leaned over the pot of mashed potatoes, scooped up a handful, and flung it as hard as he could directly onto Bucky's face. It landed with a loud slap, and that got everyone laughing. Bucky wiped the potato mass off and glared at Harley.

That's what started the food fight.

Despite previously throwing flour at each other, Natasha and Bucky teamed up against Harley, who had the Maximoff twins on his side. Tony stood on the sidelines trying to fight off a headache caused by the thought of cleaning up the growing mess on the floor. The fight didn't last long, just a minute or two, before Pepper got involved. All she had to do was step between the two 'teams', and everyone stopped.

"Bucky and Harley, you started this, so you're cleaning it up. Everyone else, clean yourselves up and then continue cooking."

Harley huffed and got to work, knowing there was no arguing with Pepper. When he left the room to go take a shower and clean off all the food in his hair, he made sure to flick the back of Bucky's neck as his last form of retaliation.

As he walked into his room, he realised how tired he still was. He had stayed up until about four am playing various video games while talking to MJ on the phone. She beat him at absolutely everything, and he was still bitter about it. He picked up his phone and checked his messages while he grabbed a random t-shirt and jeans from his closet.

 

 **MJ**  
dude

 **MJ**  
brooooooooo answer me

 **MJ**  
fine i won't tell you

 

He typed a quick message back and threw his phone onto his bed as he went into his en suite bathroom. When he got out of the shower, he'd almost forgotten about his phone, but the frequent buzzing of it that signaled someone was calling him reminded him of the unfinished conversation with his best friend. When he picked it up and saw MJ's contact on the screen, he immediately picked it up.

"What do you want?"

"Thank god you answered. Dude, I've been calling you for ten minutes."

"Yeah, sorry, I was in the shower. So what's going on? Why'd you have to call me?"

"I think Peter likes you."

Harley's heart stopped. "He...what?"

"He likes you. It was hard to tell at first if he did or not, mostly because none of us have ever seen his eyes, so we don't know his facial expressions that well. But then he and I were on the phone early this morning, and I mentioned that I beat your ass at Call of Duty last night, and I could hear the change in his voice and mood when I said your name."

"Okay, but that doesn't really mean anything."

"True. But then, I asked him how he felt about you joining our little group of weirdos, and apparently that was the wrong thing to say because he started complimenting you and then couldn't stop. Like I think it was physically impossible for him to stop talking about you."

Heart racing, Harley tried to think of some explanation for that, because friends don't act like that. "I, um, that doesn't really, uh, mean anything either."

"Cut the bullshit, Harley. He likes you, and you like him. When we get back from break, I expect you to do something about that. Oh, and happy Thanksgiving."

With that, she hung up, leaving Harley to think everything through on his own.


	7. seven

“Harley, just fucking ask him out!” MJ threw her hands up in the air. “It’s not that hard!”

“You know, I would, except what if you’re wrong?”

She rolled her eyes and hit the side of her head with the Playstation controller. “Dude,” she groaned, “I swear to god, if you don’t just ask him out, I’ll do it for you.”

Harley frowned. “Fine. But I get to choose where and when.”

“For the date or asking him out?”

“Both.”

“Go for it. Just don’t take too long.”

“No promises.”

Hearing a heavy sigh to his right, Harley paused the game and dropped his controller on the beanbag he’d been sitting on. He stood up with an “umph” and left the room without a word. MJ chuckled to herself and dialed Peter’s number on her phone.

“What up, weirdo?”

MJ smiled when she heard Peter’s telltale groan of annoyance. “Why can’t you pick a better nickname for me?”

“Because you’re weird. So it suits you.”

“Fair enough. So why are you calling? You could have texted.”

“Yeah, but you and I both know you can’t respond to those.”

“It’s not that I can’t. It’s that I don’t want to do that voice shit in my settings cause it fucks up phones, and I can’t afford to get this one fixed.”

“So you can’t.”

“Yeah.”

As soon as MJ heard Harley’s heavy footsteps, she whispered, “Be quiet,” into the phone and switched it to speakerphone.

Harley had a bag of chips in one hand and a giant bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade in the other as he walked in. “I don’t know, maybe it’s not such a good idea.”

MJ set her phone down on her lap as inconspicuously as possible.”What do you mean?”

“Okay, so say that Peter does like me. What if it’s just a crush and he isn’t interested in dating me?”

“I highly doubt that. Do you know how many boyfriends he’s had in the past year?”

“No.” Harley furrowed his eyebrows. _Is it a lot?_

“None. He’s never been in a relationship, and he’s always wanted one.”

He shook his head in disbelief and tried to chill out. He had become insanely nervous as soon as they started talking about Peter. “I’ll think about it.”

MJ grinned and picked up her phone.

“What if he says no?”

“He won’t.”

“How do you know that?”

“Harley, he likes you. That means that if you ask him out, he’ll say yes.”

“Okay, but then if we break up, what happens? I mean,” he sighed, “obviously I’d be kicked out of the group. I’m brand new and don’t have as strong of a connection to any of you guys as you do to each other.”

MJ rolled her eyes. She leaned forward and set her head in her free hand. “Harley, do you like him or not?”

“Of course I do.”

“So ask him out!” she shouted, throwing her arms up in the air.

“Now?”

“Sure.”

MJ pressed ‘end call’ on her phone as Harley picked up his own. He selected Peter’s number and watched as his other hand shook from nerves. “H-hey, Peter.” MJ grinned and sat back in her bean bag chair. She picked up her controller and pressed play.

Harley walked out of the room again, so as to avoid any of the gunshot sounds from the television carrying through the phone.

“Hey, Harley, what’s going on?” He heard a bit of a waver in Peter’s voice, but he didn’t think anything of it.

“Um, I, uh, I wanted to ask you something.”

“So ask.”

Harley took a deep breath and blurted, “Wouldyoumaybewannagoonadatewithmesometime?”

“What?”

“Would you, erm, maybe want to go on a date with me?”

Peter went silent for a second but finally said, “Yes.”

Harley’s eyes grew wide. “Y-you do?”

“Yeah. Tonight?”

“Um, yeah. Yeah, tonight is good, great actually. Yeah. I’ll pick you up? At 6?”

“Sounds great. See you, Harley.”

“Bye.”

Harley hung up and took another deep breath before jumping up and down and shouting, “He said yes!”

MJ came running out of the room, Cheeto puff between her teeth and controller in her hand. “He did?”

“Yeah!”

“That’s awesome!” She jumped around the house with him, controller forgotten on the end table outside of Harley’s bedroom door. They sprinted down the stairs in excitement and into Tony and Pepper’s room. For once, Tony was actually taking a break and was reading some random book that had been sitting on his nightstand for months, collecting dust.

“Dad!” Harley shouted, not realising what he said.

“Mr. Stark!”

Tony looked up in shock, partially from the two hyper teenagers suddenly being at his door, but mostly from the name he’d been called. “Yeah?”

“Harley has a date!”

“Tonight.”

Tony shot up from the bed and rushed out of the room. “Okay, you’re gonna want to look your absolute best. This is with that Peter kid, right? If it isn’t, then you’re wrong. Where are you taking him? What time are you picking him up tonight?”

Harley fired off answers in response to Tony’s various questions, “Yes, I’m not sure yet but I’m thinking somewhere nice, 6 o’clock.”

“Okay, good.” Tony nodded and led them back upstairs to Harley’s room. He actually flipped the light switch on, flooding the black room with light.

“Ugh, turn it off,” they groaned, and Tony just rolled his eyes.

“We have to find you something decent to wear instead of your stupid grunge clothes.”

“Hey, don’t hate! This stuff was cool when you were a kid.”

“Exactly.”

Harley just rolled his eyes and laid back in his beanbag chair once more. MJ flopped down on top of him, causing him to make an ‘oof’ noise. “He’s right. You have terrible taste.”

“You literally wear the same style of clothes as me, dipshit.”

“Yeah, but I wear them because they’re comfy. You wear them because you think it makes you look like a badass.”

“I do not.”

“You so do,” Tony argued from the closet.

“Whatever. At least I have a date.”


	8. eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm back!
> 
> i'm sorry i took such a long break but i had a lot going on
> 
> now i'm finally back with another chapter!

Peter was an absolute wreck the day of his first date with Harley. He was stumbling over everything, more so than usual, and he couldn’t for the life of him find his favourite sweater.

“May?”

He heard her hurried footsteps storm through the apartment. “Peter? What’s wrong? Are you okay? Did you fall?”

Peter rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. “Where’s my sweater?”

“Which one, hon? You wear a lot of sweaters.”

“The big striped one. I think. It’s green. I think. I don’t know, it’s really soft. It’s my favorite one.”

“Oh!”

Peter listened to her making her way around the room, pushing and pulling drawers in and out. He heard one or two items of clothing fly by his head, but then May popped up in front of him and placed a sweater in his hands.

“Here. Found it.”

He immediately felt bad for May going through all of this just for him to get dressed. “Thank you.”

“No problem, gotta have you looking your best for your first date!”

He rolled his eyes again. “Yeah, yeah.”

After pulling his sweater on over his t-shirt, Peter frantically moved around his room, searching for any pair of pants, then socks, then shoes. It wasn’t until May called for him from the living room that he realized he hadn’t done anything with his hair. He put his sunglasses on and jogged out the door to find May.

“Hey, hon, Harley’s here.”

Peter’s heart must have stopped for a full second before he got his legs moving again. “I’m gonna need you to tell me where you are so I don’t run into you,” he said to Harley, half-joking, half-serious.

“Oh, right.”

Peter reached out because Harley still hadn’t given up his location, and he smiled when his hand found another. “I’m assuming that’s you.”

“Yup that’s me.”

“You kids have fun,” May said as they walked out.

Peter was dreading the stairs in his apartment building, and his heart was racing, and he was just not having a good time yet. He was so nervous. He didn’t want to fall in front of Harley or embarrass himself in any way.

“Peter?”

“Yeah?”

“You look really good.”

He blushed. “Thanks. I would, uh, I would say the same if I knew what you were wearing.” He chuckled. “Oh, actually, your voice sounds nice.”

“Just today?”

“No, but it sounds extra nice today.”

He heard Harley laugh just a little and then he felt his hand return to his own. They intertwined their fingers and Peter said, “And your hands are soft.”

“So are yours.”

“So, where are you taking me?”

“This really nice American place. Tony recommended it. I’ve got reservations and everything.”

“Shit. I should’ve worn something nicer then, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. They don’t have a dress code. You look amazing anyway, I would never ask you to change out of this.”

Peter smiled to himself and swung their hands slightly. They had successfully made it down the stairs with only a few steps missed. Each time he missed one, Peter just held on tighter to Harley’s hand.

When they got outside the building, Peter started shivering, and of course, he didn’t think Harley would notice. After all, he’d learned to hide it pretty well over the years that he didn’t handle the cold very well. People always pitied him and offered him their coats, regardless of how cold they became afterwards, and he hated it.

“Are you cold?”

 _Damn it._ “No, I’m fine. My body temperature is just weird I guess. And it’s December.”

“Do you want my coat?”

 _Yes. Yes, I do want your coat because I bet it smells like you and you smell really good. I want to wear your coat and be your boyfriend and hug you and kiss you and—_ “I’m okay. But thanks.”

“Okay, just let me know if you get too cold. Can’t have you freezing on me.”

As they walked the short block to the restaurant they talked a little about school, about their lives. And the whole time, Harley was looking at Peter with the biggest heart eyes any passerby had ever seen.

The restaurant was definitely fancier than Harley had expected, and he was wearing a sweater, like Peter. He felt out of place but he tried not to show it because he knew that would make Peter feel out of place.

Harley led Peter over to their table, making sure to pull the chair out for him and everything. For a split second, he worried that Peter would hate that because he didn’t want to be babied, but he hoped he would understand that it was because this was a date in a brand new place that neither of them knew. There was no way Peter would know where the table was, or the chairs for that matter.

Peter ordered a burger and fries, but only after Harley ordered the same thing. He couldn’t read the menu of course, and that sounded pretty good anyway. He was worried Harley would ask him if he wanted to know what was on the menu, but then he realized that Harley wasn’t used to going out in public with a blind guy. He wouldn’t know to do that yet.

“This feels awkward somehow and I hate it.”

Peter laughed. “That’s usually how first dates go. In fact, that’s usually how second, third, and fourth dates go as well. And probably a few after that.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve only been on two dates maximum per person I’ve dated, and I’ve only dated two people.”

“Well then you’re still going into this with more experience than me. This is my first date ever.”

“I find that hard to believe. You’re too pretty to not have everyone just fawning all over you constantly.”

“Yeah, well, no one wants to go out with the blind guy, so I’m kind of screwed there.”

“I want to go out with the blind guy.”

Peter blushed hard. “Then it’s a good thing you are, isn’t it?”

“It’s definitely a good thing.” He could hear the smile in Harley’s voice. “So, tell me something about you that I don’t know yet. Tell me about your childhood or something.”

“Ah, straight into the deep stuff.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t have to talk about that.”

“No, it’s fine, really. I had a really good childhood when I was little, but then my parents died.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, it was a long, long time ago. I don’t remember much about them except that I have my mom’s nose and my dad’s bad eyesight.”

Harley laughed at that.

“So now I live with my aunt because my uncle died two years ago.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Um, so what was your childhood like?”

“Well,” Harley cleared his throat, “my dad left when I was six, I think. My mom was never really there, so I took care of my sister.”

“Where’s your mom now?”

“She’s in a mental health facility of some sort. She got diagnosed with something that makes her incapable of taking care of me and Abbie, and Tony was already in my life, so he adopted us. Then we moved here from Tennessee.”

“Wow. Uh, how do you like it here? Is it an easy adjustment?”

“I guess. I like it here a lot more than Tennessee. It kind of sucked down there. And I was the only gay guy in my town, the only one who was out at least. But I’ve been here for almost four months now, and it’s been good. It’s been better. And it helps that I live in a very full house.”

“So you said you had a sister. What’s she like?”

“Loud and obnoxious. She’s eleven, so she’s a little shit most of the time. But I love her, so I tolerate her.”

Peter nodded and smiled softly. “Ah yes, real love is tolerance.”

“Right.” Harley laughed. Peter loved his laugh. “Do you have siblings?”

“Nope. It’s just me and my aunt. No cousins or anything either. We have a really small extended family I guess, which is rare.”

“I feel that. I had a small family before we moved, and now I live with,” he paused, presumably to count, “thirteen other people. I think. Plus my sister.”

“Holy shit. How do you live with so many people?”

“Well, can you keep a secret?”

“Of course.”

“My adoptive dad is Tony Stark, which you already knew, but he has a wife and daughter. That’s three people. And then ten Avengers live with us too.”

 _Wait. What?_ “Harley. You live with the Avengers?”

“Yeah. well, I guess there’s nine of them and then Thor’s brother, Loki. He’s kind of evil.”

“That’s insane.”

“Do you want to meet them?”

“I mean, yeah, I’d love to, but only if you want me to. I’ll meet them when you want me to, if that makes sense.”

“I want you to.”

Peter smiled at that. He figured that was probably a good sign. It meant Harley liked him enough to want to introduce him to his new and crazy family.


	9. nine

“You’re already going on your third date? That’s awesome!”

Harley grinned even though he knew MJ couldn’t see him through the phone. “Yeah, I asked him to come ice skating with me and my family.”

“You…what?”

“Ice skating. With my family.”

“Dude. He’s blind. Ice skating is not a good idea.”

“No, it’s okay. We talked about it. For our dates, I’ve decided to do things he’s never been able to do before because he’s blind. So this time it’s ice skating, and next time I’m thinking either one of those museums where you wear headphones and listen to people explain the art or a coffee shop with live music so it’s like he’s at a concert but it’s not as dangerous.”

After a beat of silence, MJ said, “You really are perfect for him.”

“I don’t know about perfect. I’m just trying to give him…well…everything, honestly. I want him to be happy.”

“You definitely make him happy.”

Harley blushed. “I hope so.”

“Are you ever going to ask him to be your boyfriend?”

“Today, actually. Because it’s Christmas Eve.”

“How has no one snatched you up already? I mean, if I weren’t gay, I’d be stealing you from Peter right now.”

He laughed and stood up from his bed. “Thanks, I think.”

“So tell me what you’re planning.”

“Actually, I can’t. I have to go. It’s time to pick Peter up.”

“Oooh, good luck! Though you won’t need it.”

“Thanks. I’ll call you later?”

“Yep. I expect details.”

“You got it. Bye.”

“Bye, country boy.”

Harley hung up and shook his head in loving annoyance. He hated that nickname, but he loved MJ. She was a really good best friend. He slipped his phone into the pocket of his skinny jeans and slipped his heaviest jacket on.

“Hey, kid?” Tony shouted from somewhere in the house. “Time to go!”

“Coming!”

 

•••

 

“I really don’t think this is a good idea, Harls.”

“Come on, Pete, I swear you won’t fall. I’ll hold onto you the whole time.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be unsafe?”

“Yeah, but only for the person leading the way,” Harley lied. “Besides, if I fall first, you’ll fall on top of me, and I pride myself on being a nice cushion.”

“You’re an idiot, Harley Keener.”

“And you’re adorable, Peter Parker.”

Peter knew he was blushing, but he didn’t really care. He liked Harley, and Harley liked him. He was sure of that.

He let Harley buckle his skates for him because he didn’t really know how to do it himself. He liked how Harley would always ask before he helped him, and he never made it sound like Peter couldn’t do those things. When he had finished buckling the skates, Harley helped Peter up onto his feet. He stumbled for a second before realizing that it really wasn’t that hard to navigate the strangely soft floor. The ice would be the real problem.

“Harley?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you sure I won’t fall?”

“Of course you won’t fall. I’ve got you.”

Peter felt Harley pull away from him for just a second and then he was being gently helped onto the ice. He was right, it would definitely be a problem. He felt himself start to fall forward, but then an arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him to who he assumed was Harley. Harley’s distinct strawberry and mint smell and his laugh reassured Peter that he was safe. He let himself relax slightly in Harley’s arms and held on tight to him.

“Harley.”

“Yes, babe?”

“How are you holding both of us up right now?”

“I’ve got skills, Pete. I’ve been skating since I was real young.” Peter chuckled at the slight southern twang in Harley’s voice. “I’ve even got my own skates now. Tony bought ‘em.”

“So I really won’t fall.”

“You won’t fall.”

“Okay.”

“You ready to start skating?”

Peter hesitated for a second and then nodded, knowing Harley would see it even if he couldn’t.

“Okay, so basically take a small step. With either foot, it doesn’t matter.”

Peter lifted a foot and immediately started falling again. “Fuck,” he muttered right before Harley caught him and pulled him upright again.

“It’s okay. Just try again. Don’t lift it too high. Act like you’re about to slide across the floor in your socks.”

After taking a deep breath, Peter started moving again, actually skating slowly this time.

“That’s great! And if you want to slow down, just slowly point your toes toward each other.”

Peter noticed they were picking up speed, so he abruptly stopped, falling forward once again. And once again, Harley caught him.

“Why don’t I just keep holding onto you, and we can skate together?”

“Yeah, that would probably be best,” he laughed. He felt Harley’s hands wrap around his torso once more, and hopefully he wouldn’t remove them again. Peter hugged Harley tight and pressed the side of his face into Harley’s shirt. In a leap of faith in Harley, he closed his eyes, took his sunglasses off and placed them in his pocket.

Peter knew Harley was looking at him when he asked, “Where are your glasses?”

“I took them off because I don’t want to drop them.”

“Oh. Okay. I just wanted to make sure.”

Harley skated along the rink while Peter tried to match his movements. He could feel when Harley’s leg moved away from his, but it wasn’t until they had made a full lap that Peter realized Harley was skating backwards.

“Oh my god. Harley. You’re going backwards. Is that safe? How are you doing that?”

“It’s perfectly safe, sunshine. Like I said, I’ve been doing this for years. Just hold on and you’ll be fine.”

“Hey, kids! You alright over there?”

Harley smiled and slowed to a stop. He turned his head toward where his family was slowly skating along the rink. Abbie was holding Pepper’s hand, and Morgan was holding Tony’s. “We’re good.”

Tony shot him a thumbs up, and Harley skated off again, with Peter in tow. He loved that Peter trusted him enough to let him do this. He never wanted to break Peter’s trust, and he never wanted to lose this.

“Hey, Pete?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you be my boyfriend?”

Harley looked down at Peter to see him smiling wide. “Yes.”


	10. ten

Harley threw a hard punch at Steve and said, “But I’ve never done this shit before.”

“Language.”

He ignored him and continued. “I’ve never been in a relationship.”

“Well,” Bucky chimed in from the bench, “neither has he.”

“But I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Do I kiss him? Do I hold his hand? What do we do? What do you guys do?”

Steve scoffed and landed a kick to Harley’s armor-protected stomach. “Harley, we’ve been together for years. We’re much farther ahead than you and Peter. If you were doing anything we’re doing, I’d be concerned.”

“I’d say yes, hold his hand and kiss him, but don’t stop taking him on dates. And just spend time with him.” Bucky stood up from his spot on the bench and tapped in while Steve tapped out.

“Hold on. Why did you just skip over what Steve said? What the hell do you nasty old men get up to when no one else is here?” Harley asked with a very disgusted look on his face.

“That’s not important.”

“I have a bad feeling I’d have nightmares if you told me.”

“You probably would.”

Harley shuddered and then groaned when Bucky’s metal arm went straight into his chest. “Fuck, man, I’ve got a date after this.”

“Stop getting distracted. It’ll only hurt you in battle.”

“I’m not in battle, Bucky, I’m training.”

“Exactly. There’s no room to get distracted here either. If you get distracted in here, you’ll get distracted out there.”

“Give him a break, L’Oreal.” Harley laughed and looked over to see Tony walking in. “His boyfriend’s here.”

A grin spread across Harley’s face and he tapped his chest in the center to release the armor around his body. Just like Tony’s suit, it made its way inside the plate in his chest, leaving him shirtless. He sprinted out of the room and up onto his shared floor with Abbie and Morgan. Hurriedly, he threw a t-shirt and a big sweatshirt on before running back down the stairs to the front door of the residence floors. His grin reappeared when he saw Peter standing there with his backpack.

“Hey, babe,” Harley said as he opened the door and took his boyfriend’s hand.

Peter smiled at Harley’s touch and let himself be led into the unfamiliar place. “I’m trusting you, so you’d better not make me hit a wall.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

Peter cautiously stepped forward with Harley. He was still worried he’d bump into things, so he stayed mostly behind him. He couldn’t tell how far they’d gone, but it must have been more than an average-sized first floor. Of course, it was the Avengers Tower, so that made sense.

“Where are you taking me?”

“To my room. I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“It’s not your dick, right? Cause I’ve seen that shit happen in movies, and I will not let it happen to me.”

Harley laughed out loud. “No, it’s not my dick. You’ll know when we get there. I’ll tell you.”

Peter groaned and continued to follow Harley until they reached some stairs. He only knew there were stairs because Harley told him.

“I could carry you...if you want. I just don’t want you to fall.”

“Sure.” Peter waited for a second and was definitely surprised when Harley scooped him up into his arms and whisked him away. “Okay, this is not what I meant, but I guess it works.”

Harley set him down somewhere that felt an awful lot like a bed, which should have probably been a red flag, but Peter trusted Harley, and the bed was really fucking comfortable. “Hold on for just a second.”

Peter waited impatiently until a heavy book fell on the bed. “Jesus, Harls, what the fuck is that?” He sat up against the headboard and waited for a response.

“It’s a book.”

“What textbook is that big? Wouldn’t they have told me in class that I needed to read it?”

“Not exactly. I think we should do something other than study today.”

“So then what’s the big ass book for?”

“It’s a braille book.”

“I can’t read braille.”

“I know. But I’m learning, and you told me last week that you want to learn how to read, so I want to help.”

Peter scoffed. “I don’t need any favors, Harley.”

“I’m not trying to do you any favors. You said you wanted to read. You’re going to read.”

“Harley, even if I did learn how to read, I don’t have the money to afford braille books.”

“I do.”

That’s when Peter started to get mad. “I said I don’t need favors!”

“And I said it’s not a favor. I want you to learn how to read, Pete. can you please just try it? It doesn’t have to be today, but sometime? Maybe?”

“Maybe. I don’t want to right now.” _I don’t want you to think I’m dumb._

“Okay. That’s fine.”

Even though Peter couldn’t see him, he knew he had messed things up with Harley. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For getting mad. You’re learning braille to help me, and I yelled at you. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. I get it.”

Peter felt a dip in the bed on his right and then a shoulder next to his own. He leaned against it and sighed. “I’m still sorry. I appreciate it, I promise I do, I’m just not used to this stuff.”

“You’re not used to someone caring about you?”

“Nope. Not like this. May cares a lot, of course, but we don’t have the money for anything special like braille books. Ned and MJ care a lot, but they don’t have money either, and they don’t really know the extent of my problems, you know? They assume more than you do. I’ve never experienced this before.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Harley inched his hand over to Peter’s and intertwined their fingers. He watched Peter smile softly, and he smiled back. “I don’t want to make you mad at me again, but I have a question.”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you wear sunglasses?”

Peter sighed quietly. “Short answer: I’m blind and when I wear my sunglasses indoors, people figure it out. It’s for convenience.”

“What’s the long answer?”

“I hate my eyes. They look disgusting.”

“I don’t believe you. What do they look like?”

Peter thought for a second, and then he sat up and turned toward Harley. He had to release his hand and feel for his legs to make sure he was in the right spot. “I can show you. But please know that the only people who I have ever let see my eyes are May, Ned, and MJ. I’m trusting you to not make fun of me. Okay?”

Harley nodded vigorously, forgetting for a second that Peter couldn’t see that. “Yes. I promise I would never make fun of you.”

After taking a deep breath, Peter took his sunglasses off and opened his eyes. “They’re gross, aren’t they?”

Harley just sat there and smiled. “I like them. They’re like little white galaxies. They’re pretty, but like, not in the way you would think, you know? Like they’re so unique and it’s amazing.”

“You’re lying.”

“Nope. I’m serious.” Harley stared directly into Peter’s white, foggy eyes for a few more seconds before he cleared his throat and tore his own eyes away. “Um, can I try something?”

“That depends. What are you going to try?”

“I wanna kiss you.”

Peter’s cheeks turned bright red. “Oh.”

“Can I?”

Peter just nodded, and his breath hitched when he felt Harley’s hand touch his cheek.

“I’m serious. Your eyes are gorgeous.”

“Stop it.”

“Never.” Harley leaned forward and kissed Peter once on the lips, but he stayed close. “Can I kiss you again?”

“Fuck yes.”


	11. eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> taking a break from this for just a little bit while i write my first hsmtmts fic so check that out in february
> 
> i promise i'll come back to it asap because this story is definitely not over

“Harley?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“What does space look like?”

Harley sat up and leaned toward Peter, who was still lying on his back on Harley’s bed. “What do you mean?”

“Like is it pretty? All I can really imagine in my head is a polka-dotted sheet of black. And that doesn’t really sound pretty.”

He chuckled. “No, it’s definitely prettier than that. It’s hard to describe, but I guess it’s more like a splatter of white. So like messy polka dots.”

“Still doesn’t sound pretty.”

Harley laughed again. “Sorry. I’m bad at describing shit. Why do you ask, anyway?” He laid back down and brushed his hand against Peter’s.

“I don’t know. I’ve always liked space even though I can’t see it. It’s fascinating to think about the celestial bodies that are out there that we’ve never discovered. You know?”

“Huh. I guess, yeah. I’ve never given much thought to everything else out there, honestly.”

“You should. It’s a bit of a mind fuck sometimes, but it’s fun.”

The two boys stayed silent for a minute, and Harley closed his eyes. He knew Peter had his closed too, and he wanted to feel what Peter felt just for a minute. It was weird. Of course he’d done this before, but not with the intent of understanding how someone else felt.

“Harley, you’re thinking too much.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can hear your frustration.”

“That’s weird. I didn’t know you could do that.”

Peter snorted in amusement and shook his head. “One of my many talents.”

For another minute or so, they were silent again, but then Harley spoke up once more. “Do you like the quiet? Like this?”

“Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I hate it because it makes me feel like I’ve lost my hearing too, but sometimes it’s good. It gives me time to think without any distractions.”

“Am I distracting you from your thoughts?”

“No.”

Another minute passed.

“Can I ask you something weird, Harley?”

“Sure. I’m the king of weird.”

“Doubtful, but alright.” Peter took a deep breath and blurted, “Can I touch your face?”

“Yeah? I mean, we’re dating. I don’t think you really have to ask that.”

“Well, I’m asking because I told you when we first met that blind people don’t actually touch people’s faces that much, but now we’re boyfriends, and I want to know what you feel like.”

“Alright. Be prepared to be disappointed.”

That earned Harley a soft punch to his side. “Oh, shut up, I’m sure you’re gorgeous. No one can have that nice of a voice without being beautiful. At least, I don’t think they can.”

Harley blushed and stayed quiet. He giggled a little when he felt one of Peter’s hands move around his left cheek.

“Stop laughing, I need to concentrate.”

He went silent again and tried to keep his whole body as still as possible. Peter’s hand moved across his nose to his other cheek and then down to his mouth.

“Your lips are soft.”

He still stayed silent, and Peter’s hand kept moving.

“Can you sit up for a second?” Harley obeyed, and Peter sat up, too. Peter placed both his hands on Harley’s face and said, “Tell me a story. Something from when you were a kid.

Harley frowned, and Peter felt over his mouth again. “Um, I don’t know. Do you want a happy story or a sad story?”

“Happy.”

“Shit. There’s not many of those.”

This time, Peter frowned. “Okay, then tell me about Tony breaking into your garage.”

Harley laughed and Peter felt around his jaw. “Well, that one is a fairly happy story, with a little bit of sad, but I’ll tell you.” Peter’s hands had moved back to Harley’s mouth, and Harley finally understood why he kept doing that. He wasn’t just trying to figure out what he looked like, he wanted to feel the movements of Harley’s face. He really was mapping him out, facial expressions and all.

“You gonna tell me?”

“Right.” Harley flushed red when he realized he had just sat there thinking for a while.

“You’re blushing.”

“You can feel that?”

“Your skin has heated up significantly.”

“Hey, if you’re gonna expose me like this, can I at least see your eyes again?”

“Yeah, but only if you start telling the story now.”

“Okay, fine. So I was eleven.” Peter’s eyes opened and Harley grinned at the sight of them. Peter ran his fingers over his boyfriend’s smile. “I had come home from school and I was having a shitty day, I remember. My mom and my sister were visiting my grandparents, so I was alone for a couple of days.”

“Why didn’t they take you with them?”

“I don’t know. I guess I didn’t really care enough to ask, though. Maybe they had a good reason.”

Peter moved his hands down Harley’s neck to rest on his chest, and Harley started freaking out. His hands were on either side of his arc reactor chest plate, right next to it, and he couldn’t let Peter know about it just yet. He had a sweatshirt on, but that wouldn’t fix the fact that it was a very hard surface in the middle of his chest. He tried to stay calm, but he was really nervous. He didn’t want to lie to Peter.

“You stopped talking again. Harley, are you okay?”

“Yeah, sorry. I just zoned out for a minute. Anyway, I was home alone.” _His hands are still there._ “And I heard a noise coming from the garage, which was weird, again because I was home alone. I went down to investigate and found Tony stealing my stuff, basically.”

“How charming.”

Harley chuckled. “Yup. He needed a place to stay and recharge the Iron Man suit, or something like that. But of course, annoying little shit that I was, I hung around him and got myself into trouble. I’m pretty paranoid now because of it, but this guy tried to kill me. And, by the way, this guy was like made of fire or something, and Tony saved me, so that was cool.”

“You were almost killed?”

Harley felt Peter’s fingers fidgeting against his chest. He was so close to touching the arc reactor. “Y-yeah, but I’m okay. All because of Tony.”

Peter slid his hands back up Harley’s torso to his chin. “Thank god for Tony, then. Otherwise I wouldn’t have you.”

Harley blushed again and smiled softly. “I guess not.” He smiled and watched Peter’s hands slide back up his face to his hair. He placed a soft kiss on the bridge of Peter’s nose, catching him off guard. “I have another question for you.”

“Yeah?” Peter’s cheeks were a soft pink from the shock of the kiss.

“I know you probably don’t really know because you can’t see me, but do I feel attractive?”

“Definitely. You feel… pretty.”

Harley felt heat rise from his neck to his face. “I feel pretty.”

“Yeah. You’ve got, like, chiseled features. Like your jaw.” He ran his fingers over Harley’s face as he talked about it. “But then you have full, soft lips, so you’re pretty. I like touching your face, ergo you’re pretty.”

“I’m gonna kiss you.” Harley leaned forward and pulled Peter closer to him. “Is that okay?”

“Of course it’s okay.”

“Well, I just don’t want it to be a surprise. I don’t want to kiss you out of nowhere and you have no idea that I’m about to do it.”

“Harley?”

“Yeah?”

“Just fucking kiss me already.”


	12. not an update

i'm really sorry, guys, but i haven't been able to keep up with updating this book. i'm not done with it, and it isn't discontinued, but it's on hold. i've had a lot going on for the past couple of months, and i've been working on this book, but i don't have the next chapter ready and won't for a while. eventually i'll come back to it, but for right now, i need to focus on myself.


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